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1999-2000 The Last Time the Toronto Maple Leafs Won Their Division

By Andrew Kogut

TORONTO, ON - MAY 14 : Curtis Joseph of the Toronto Maple Leafs and his teammate, right wing Tie Domi #28, celebrate during game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Ottawa Senators at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on May 14, 2002. The Maple Leafs won 3-0. (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images/NHLI)
TORONTO, ON - MAY 14 : Curtis Joseph of the Toronto Maple Leafs and his teammate, right wing Tie Domi #28, celebrate during game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Ottawa Senators at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on May 14, 2002. The Maple Leafs won 3-0. (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images/NHLI) /
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Curtis Joseph, Toronto Maple Leafs
Curtis Joseph, Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images) /

Cujo and the playoffs

The 1999-2000 Toronto Maple Leafs may have fallen to the New Jersey Devils in six games in the Conference Semi-Finals but that wasn’t due to their lack of quality goaltending.

Curtis “Cujo” Joseph in 12 playoff games had a 2.06 GAA, a .932 SV% and one shutout. In the series against New Jersey his SV% was .923, which was identical to his counterpart, Martin Brodeur. The Leafs only being able to muster 9 goals in those six games was the main culprit in this playoff exit.

But one thing that really stands out about the 1999-2000 Leafs team is the amount of scoring depth. Including a perennially productive Mats Sundin campaign where he scored 32, 11 players had double-digits in goals that whole season (six with 20 or more) and 14 players had at least 20 points.

The scoring did dry up in the playoffs though, as the team only managed 26 goals in their 12 playoff games. Cujo and the defense played well but ultimately the team was no match for a stacked Devils roster that finished the season 2nd in goals for, 7th in goals against and featured names of the likes of Brodeur, Elias, Sykora, Arnott, Gomez, Niedermayer, Stevens, Rafalski, Mogilny, Madden, Pandolfo and Claude Lemieux. No wonder they won the Cup.

2021 playoffs on the horizon

As shown above, finishing first does obviously not ensure a free pass through the playoffs. The Toronto Maple Leafs cannot afford to take any team for granted and are probably one early exit away from a major overhaul.

Their current forward group has more high-end talent than the 99-00 team and the defense, with Sandin in the lineup, has comparable talent and skill. The older team takes it in terms of sandpaper and while Campbell has been fantastic this year in the Leafs net, he is an unknown playoff commodity. Advantage to Joseph. The collection of depth on this current Leafs team is also quite impressive, with decent contributors like Alex Galchenyuk and Pierre Engvall not even guaranteed a spot in the playoff line-up.

Next. Leafs Top 10 Prospects. dark

If Campbell continues his stellar play and some of this depth that I’m raving about steps up and complements the stars, we could be looking at a much better fate than that last division-winning Leafs team. Cu-JO LEAFS Cu-JO!

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